The Cape Bird Club

Fire management as a tool.  The photographs by Jeremy Keyser.

Fynbos prefers nutrient poor soil.
Apart from the ecological impact of the remaining brush after cutting down large amounts of Port Jackson and Rooikrans "exotic" vegetation, there is an important physical impact that poses a problem.
The brush creates a large fuel load for fires. This in turn increases the chance of unwanted runaway fires in the area.
In order to prevent this problem, as well as to still allow fire to be apart of the natural vegetation cycle and development, as it is in all Fynbos, controlled fires were made in the brush piles. These were allowed to spread to the immediate vicinity where they were controlled by extinguishing with water.
This operation was carried out on the 3rd and 7th June 2004.

Some of the phragmites was allowed to burn in some areas.




Planting some indigenous plants in the burn areas.

The burning is not however the end product, it opens up a fantastic area for re-colonization by indigenous plant species but this is also true for invasive exotic plants. To combat this a number of indigenous species had been propagated months earlier. These plants now have a head start and were planted out in the burn site. Along with this, intensive follow up work will need to be done in those sites, until the indigenous plants can out compete the invasive exotic plants.